"What I have written in this essay is a summary of authenticated fact. It is fact gathered not by those seeking evidence to support a theory, as religionists too often do, but rather as scientists do, by gathering the evidence together and seeing what theories that evidence suggests.
It is the latter process, a dedication to the truth, that enables human progress. This is because humility is the basis of all intellectual advancement, spiritual or scientific. The ability to admit that you are wrong is the absolute prerequisite to gaining understanding. The presumption that the answer is revealed, and must then be supported by seeking evidence, is a sure way to lead civilization down the blind alley of arrogant egotism and the institutionalized error that prevented the Catholic church from acknowledging for three centuries that it was wrong to punish Galileo for defying the pope in publishing the Dialog, when Galileo was right about the sun being the center of the solar system and everyone who read the book knew it. That is the position in which the dogmatic Christian now finds himself. It is up to the Christian to be honest with himself as to what this means for his faith. Believe what you want to believe, because it is what you have heard all your life, or accept what is real, regardless of how painful that may be."
The following is a thorough and methodical overview of biblical development from at least 7000 B.C.E. (and the Epic of Gilgamesh) to the present proselytism in impoverished continents such as Africa. It is well worth 30 minutes of honest study to get once and forever a clear intellectual picture of the whole mess. Only people absolutely unwilling to face the evidence can fail to see that there is nothing of divinity in these stories. As the author shows, it is mainly a story of conquest and conquest and conquest...
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